Ernie Ball Music Man DarkRay Basses: The StingRay With a Dark Side

Everybody knows the StingRay formula: one humbucker, an active preamp, and a punch that refuses to be buried in a mix. The DarkRay asks a simple question — what if that same bass could snarl, too? Ernie Ball Music Man teamed up with Darkglass Electronics to build the answer: a StingRay with a custom Darkglass preamp and two drive circuits built right into the bass. No pedalboard required.

Bass Central stocks the DarkRay deep — nine on the wall right now in 4- and 5-string, with more finishes on order. Here’s what makes it different, and how to pick yours.

The Darkglass Preamp Is the Whole Point

A regular StingRay Special runs Music Man’s own 18-volt, 3-band preamp. The DarkRay swaps it for a modern 2-band preamp Darkglass designed specifically for this bass — extremely clean and quiet in its own right, with volume, gain, bass, treble, and blend controls.

Then it gets interesting. Built into that preamp are the two drive circuits from Darkglass’s Alpha·Omega: Alpha, a tight, punchy distortion, and Omega, a rawer, fuzz-leaning drive. A 3-way lever switch picks clean, Alpha, or Omega, and a color-coded LED ring around the switch lights up to tell you which mode you’re in. The gain knob sets how hard the circuit drives and the blend knob mixes it against your clean signal — dial in a little grit that still sounds like your bass, or go full snarl with no low-end loss.

DarkRay or StingRay Special?

Underneath the electronics, the DarkRay is the modern StingRay platform players already love: a single humbucker, roasted maple neck, 34-inch scale, 22 frets, and a sculpted 5-bolt neck joint. So the choice isn’t about feel — it’s about the job.

Pick the StingRay Special if you want the classic active StingRay voice with 3-band EQ and you get your dirt from pedals or your amp. Pick the DarkRay if you play in a band where the bass steps forward — rock, metal, punk, heavy funk — and you want two flavors of drive, blended to taste, without adding a single pedal to your board.

And Now: DarkRay II — With an Octave On Board

Just announced: the DarkRay II takes the same formula and adds a fully integrated octave section. It’s fully polyphonic — it tracks chords and multiple strings at once — with octave up and octave down on a push/push octave knob that doubles as a wet/dry blend, so you can run anything from a touch of sub under your core tone to a fully saturated octave. The gain knob is push/push too, toggling between the Alpha and Omega drive voices, and both knobs wear LED rings that light up and change color to show what’s engaged. The 3-way switch now selects core tone, octave only, or octave plus distortion.

The rest is familiar DarkRay hardware: ash body, roasted maple neck, ebony board with 22 stainless steel frets, single neodymium humbucker, and the Darkglass 2-band preamp — 4-string only, $3,299, in Black, Showtime, Spectralite, and Mean Green Burst.

DarkRay II is coming to Bass Central — all four finishes, and preorders are open. Showtime and Black land first (ETA November 2026), with Spectralite and Mean Green Burst right behind them (ETA January 2027) — $3,299 each.

Finishes: Ebony Boards, One Maple Wildcard

Most DarkRays pair a roasted maple neck with an ebony fingerboard: Starry Night, Dark Rainbow, Obsidian Black, Plasma Purple, Silver Burst, and Silverburst. The exception is Gold Bar, which wears a roasted maple board for a brighter, snappier look and feel. Prices run $2,949–$2,999 for the 4-string and $3,049 for the 5-string.

In Stock Now at Bass Central

Pulled from the wall today — every one of these is here and ready to ship:

• StingRay 4 DarkRay, Starry Night / Ebony — $2,949
• StingRay 5 DarkRay, Starry Night / Ebony — $3,049
• StingRay 4 DarkRay, Dark Rainbow / Ebony, 8.6 lbs — $2,949
• StingRay 4 DarkRay, Gold Bar / Roasted Maple, 8.6 lbs — $2,949
• StingRay 5 DarkRay, Gold Bar / Roasted Maple, 8.7 lbs — $3,049
• StingRay 4 DarkRay, Obsidian Black / Ebony — $2,949
• StingRay 5 DarkRay, Plasma Purple / Ebony — $3,049
• StingRay 5 DarkRay, Silver Burst / Ebony — $3,049
• StingRay 4 DarkRay, Silverburst / Ebony — $2,999

On Order — Reserve Yours

Three more finishes are on the way and open for preorder: the StingRay 4 DarkRay in Plasma Purple and Gloss Black ($3,299, ETA November 2026), and the StingRay 5 DarkRay in Dark Rainbow ($3,049, ETA January 2027). DarkRay finishes tend to sell in waves — if one of these is your color, a deposit gets your name on it.

Want the wider Music Man picture? Our Ernie Ball Music Man basses guide covers the StingRay Special, Short Scale, and Bongo lines too.

Why Buy Your DarkRay From Bass Central

We’re a bass-only shop, and DarkRays aren’t a sideline for us — with nine on the wall and more on order, this is one of the deepest DarkRay benches anywhere. You get honest weights on the listings and people who can talk preamps and drive circuits because we play them. Every bass ships FREE in the Continental USA, with NO TAX (Excl FL).

Looking for a specific finish? Call or Email 800-545-8813 or sales@basscentral.com, or browse the full wall at www.basscentral.com.